A wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of two surviving sons of the plaintiff. The plaintiff, her husband and their two sons were driving on a highway in their Nissan truck in Jacksonville, Florida when suddenly the rear end locked up, causing the truck to spin out of control, hitting a tractor trailer. The passenger’s door flew open, ejecting and killing the Plaintiff.
The Plaintiff’s husband had taken their truck to the Nissan dealership for service earlier in the week, after hearing a whining noise in the rear end. When he picked up the truck, one day prior to the wreck, the dealer’s mechanic, who performed the service, said that he had filled the truck with fluids and had also test-driven the truck. However, immediately after the accident, there was no fluid in the differential and the odometer indicated that the truck had not been test-driven, as he was told.
The lawsuit contends that the Nissan truck had both design and manufacturing defects and was not serviced properly by the dealer. The accident allegedly was caused when differential fluid got out through the front pinion seal. The lawsuit stated that the dealer’s mechanic neither adequately repaired the truck nor warned the Plaintiff not to drive it until a new differential, which had been ordered, was installed.
Metallurgical experts from the University of Florida were hired to conduct extensive tests on the truck, including the use of the an electron scanning microscope to show that the fill plug and drain plug had not been removed by the mechanic to fill the differential with fluid. A mechanical engineer, an accident reconstructionist and an economist made up the expert team.
A confidential settlement was reached.
If you or a loved one has sustained injury due to someone else’s negligence you may be entitled to compensation for your damages. Feel free to contact one of our Gacovino Lake attorneys at 1-800-246-HURT (4878) for more information.
